During the pandemic, Congress appropriated more than $25 billion in Higher Education Emergency Relief (HEER) Funds to help community colleges and their students. How did colleges use these funds? What were the results of their spending and associated efforts? What remaining needs do they have, if any? The ARCC Network’s Survey of Pandemic Relief Spending and Recovery Strategies seeks to answer these questions.
Dual enrollment students, or "stealth transfer students," and their pathway are becoming increasingly hard to ignore. Aurely Garcia Tulloch explains the issues this raises for both two- and four-year institutions and how the transfer pathway could be better leveraged for increasing college access and equity in a new blog post originally published by Inside Higher Ed.
Maria S. Cormier, Ariel Deutsch, and Betsy L. Tessler explore two Virginia Community College System programs for helping adults earn credentials that improve their labor market prospects and provide on-ramps to further education: FastForward and Get a Skill, Get a Job, Get Ahead (G3).
What do students consider important for creating a sense of welcome and belonging at college? Susan Bickerstaff, Selena Cho, Elisabeth A. Barnett, and Andrea Lopez Salazar spoke with students and found that relatively simple actions by faculty and staff can make a big difference.
As dual enrollment participation has expanded, so too have the types of programs and courses offered. Lauren Schudde and Wonsun Ryu discuss how differences in course set up have the potential to shape students’ dual enrollment experiences and overall course performance, as well as their subsequent college enrollment decisions.
Chet Jordan of Greenfield Community College explores the College's guided pathways reforms and discusses how they have evolved since CCRC's Guided Pathways Summer Institute.
Commencement season is here! This spring, CCRC is proud to celebrate four researchers who have completed their graduate degrees. These hardworking individuals finished their programs all while making valuable contributions to CCRC fieldwork, presenting at conferences, and poring over data.
Students are told that enrolling in a community college is an affordable onramp to a bachelor’s degree. But in reality, only a small percentage of students transfer and graduate. To fix the problem, experts first have to know what’s causing it. Alex Anacki and Jessica Steiger address the current lack of available transfer data.
Dr. Karen Mayo reflects on the 2022 Guided Pathways Summer Institute, sharing how Bluegrass Community and Technical College has since worked to implement pathways reforms and how their efforts have evolved.
Recent data suggest that students are returning to community colleges, though total numbers are well below pre-pandemic levels. Davis Jenkins explores the causes of enrollment declines in recent decades and examines ways colleges can build on successful reforms to improve student outcomes.
Earning college credit in high school enables more students—especially those historically underrepresented in higher education—to pursue college after high school. However, many students who stand to benefit the most from these opportunities often have limited access to them. Jessica Steiger breaks down a new CCRC brief that examines the potential of five different models to help underrepresented students enter college degree programs in high-opportunity fields.
There is no simple recipe for developing an equitable, effective community college funding system. But understanding the challenges facing community colleges and the finance systems that underpin them can help policymakers, educators, and advocates develop new funding approaches. Kate Shaw, Lauren Asher, and Stephanie Murphy share findings from their latest report, Mapping Community College Finance Systems to Develop Equitable and Effective Finance Policy.
Jessie Steiger has always understood the power of transitions. From her own turbulent transition into high school to the challenges she faced as a transfer student at Penn State, the CCRC senior research assistant and PEAR fellow says the times she spent in flux tuned her in to the ways the education system is stacked against some students.
While community college practice has changed considerably in recent decades, workforce and economic development programs remain stagnant. Jim Jacobs reflects on how community colleges might update the way they work with employers to ensure equity remains a central goal of workforce programs.
While commentary on the dire state of the humanities in higher education continues, the role that community colleges might play in helping put students on the humanities track has been largely overlooked. How might community colleges strengthen their humanities offerings, and working with their four-year partners, better propel more of their students to successful transfer in the humanities?
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